Jack Hardy was born in 1999 in Bath, U.K., he grew up in Australia and is currently based in Brighton U.K.
He attended film school for a year, but he realised it wasn’t quite what he had expected and dropped out looking for a more flexible path.
After an encounter with Jean Michel Basquiat, Jack became a painter.
He travelled through Europe before moving to Bristol, where he had his first solo show “Open Hands” curated by Martyn Cross and Phil Root at Stokes Croft Gallery in December 2020. He then hit the road again travelling across Egypt teaching English and painting. Back in the U.K. he was artist in Residence for the “brb” project implemented by Caraboo. The residency put Jack in contact with local artists and curators and allowed him to experiment with large format canvases for the first time.
His Mentor Martyn Cross wrote about him:
“…That same energy is there in Jack’s paintings and drawings. You know what he’s seeing and you know what he’s saying. There’s also a charming sense of naivety about what he creates which stems from his lack of formal training, and this is a good thing. There’s no dead weight. It’s fresh and it’s raw and it’s simple. It’s direct. No flab. The poetry he weaves with the words he introduces to a canvas are beautifully serene. He’s in a certain place and it’s the same place as you, if only you’d stop and look around. Even with some of his energetic mark-making there’s a calmness about their existence which suggests the author is in contemplation about his role in their creation. He’s finding his way in the world and he wants you to come with him.”
Metropolis Contemporary Art Gallery 